to not have that sense of sociability. and neighborliness. to understand we are in this together or mutual destiny. that requires empathy. i don't have to love you to death or spend time talking, but that most empathetic man was george herbert walker bush. to show another planet basically. this is the kind of person years ago this is a letter that president bush wrote in the late 50s after the list

of the bushes daughter robin in leukemia of 1953. the last child to be born in 59 this is the voice of a son writing his mother at the loss of his own daughter. i share this with you it is unique in the literature of the presidency but i often think if i could be 5%% of the man who wrote this letter so this is the voice of george hw bush. there is about our house a need the running full cd restlessness of the boys we need some starch to go with our toward knees and blue jeans and helmets and soft

blonde hair to offset the crewcut or the dollhouse to stand firm against the baseball cards. we need a legitimate christmas angel one who doesn't have cuts beneath address or someone who was afraid and someone who will cry when i get mad and not argue. we need a little wind on -- one. we need a girl. she would fight and cry and play and make her way just like all the rest. we had one once. but she was patient. she would stand beside our bed until i filter there silently and comfortable to put those precious box blocks against my chest and fall asleep. my daddy had a caress of

certain ownership that i love even more than high dad. we cannot touch her we have her but we cannot feel her. . . . . >> you have to know what breaks it. that's the best part of the soul of america. thank you. [applause]

and now back to history and biography stage to join event in progress. this is policer prize winning author lauren talking about his book on texas history and politics. from cotton timber and cattle top changes all of that. the real wealth poured into the state. houston is there by the way? it is the the very beginning of this houston adopted motto houston gateway to beaumont.

there was already a little bit too much to endure. so to capture the oil business and took it to houston and made houston energy capitol of the world. and texas as we know it was born. now, also born was a pattern with a bust. prices after spendle top crashed and many places oil was deeper than water. now, that was the first will. that was the beginning of texas. on a dazey bradford being the widow who owned the land, there was a -- comment columbus merriam joiner known as dad. and he has been drilling on daisy bradford leaves for self year two dry wells. he was broke. and so what did he do?

he got phony geological reports, and he went around showing these geological reports that said, that they were going to tap in to the greatest oil field ever known at 3500 feet. once again, a total lie that turned out to be absolutely true are. on october 3rd, 1930 there was gurgling and heard about the top. farmsers in bib overalls and ladies in -- dresses that they sewn out of sears catalog patterns and they were waiting for what would happen next. no doubt they were thinking that -- soon they would be rich. soon they would be walking down the the buying purse and jewelry and considering their

investments and thing is this actually happened for many of them. the gusher comes, children the black rain as it began called children danced in the rain and they painted their faces. nine months later there were thousands of wells in east texas. producing half of the total of u.s. demand in one texas town, there were 44 wells in a single city block. you could walk through downtown from derrick to derrick without your feet ever touching the ground and, of course, prices went from a dollar ten a tbairl to 13 cents and governor had to shutdown well production. now, there's a last well i'm going to talk to you about about -- is more pertinent to your life right now. by the 1990s people were talking about peak oil it is that moment when half of all

recoverable exploited from there it is a long down hill slide and that's where people thought we were in the 90s. and -- and into this period -- there's a man named george mitchell probably greatest wild cat texas has ever known. he was a son of greek immigrants his father had been a shep forward in greece and -- moved to galveston opened up a shoe sign stand and george mitchell was a prodigy acting on a tip -- from a bookie in chicago. and by 19america only had 35 years remaining of revolverrable of petroleum and only alternative that he could see

was coal. now, mitchell was an environmentalist, and very progressive conservationist. there's a -- you all know about woodlands they built a planned community community outside of houston that had preservation and conservations. and he's looked down the road of what was going to happen to america and the world if we turned to coal. either we would have to sacrifice energy of our civilization or we would destroy our planet with the pollution. in his opinion, the only thing that could rescue planet was natural gas it burns far cleaner than coal as it happened, he had 300,000 acres under lease. and -- and he also had a contract with the city of chicago to provide 10% of that city's natural gas

needs. is a terrific deal when he signed it but resource were continually diminishing so he was facing bankruptcy. now, a mile and a half below this area that he had under lease 70 miles north of dallas is -- a geological called the barnette shale, it's -- 5,000 square miles in dimension, that covered 17 county moe of them in texas, and it was estimated and known to have the largest gas reserves of any onshore field in the entire united states. so perve knew gas was there. there was a problem. there was other oils that i told you about where in limestone or sand stone and -- petroleum molecules moved fairly easily through that rock but shale is tight rock. in other words, there's no place to move. it's like a prison.

so how do you liberate those gas and oil molecules? well dynamite that was they try that. bazooka, machine guns in atomic energy commission exploded a 29 kiloton nuclear bomb 200 feet below the surface and that was first of 30 such nuclear devices that were used to try to free up the gas that people knew was down there. and that actually did work. but gas was radioactive which was as you know surprise right -- [laughter] so -- using hydraulic fluid to precisely chatter create a little fracture in this rock. but it was too expensive to work in shale.

and he had a lot of gas and he had to get so -- to 1981, he drilled his first hydraulically fracking comes from fracturing -- in the the barnette shale it was the cw slay number 1 and it lost money. and so did the next 300 wells that he 200 million to his company. it was 17 years after cw slay number one that they ch griffin number four was drilled and through refinements in the the hydraulic fluids -- it was finally profitable. and that's the day that revolution began. it was the third time in texas history that state transformed

the energy business bermd the u.s. industry was in a long decline from 1970 which was the peak of our -- oil production when ten million barrels day were produced in the united states, the production had been declining and declining and and that period of time many of you will about remember was d by oil embargo war in middle east, gaslines, and the fear that the world economy was being held hostage by regimes that were often intensely anti-western anti-american -- so -- u.s. production touch bottom in 2008 when only five million barrels of oil were produced in that year. barrel per day and oil prices hit a record of 145 a barrel but the fracking revolution was already underway by 2010 -- 14,000 wells in the shale alone

u.s. -- oil and gas production doubled in five years. most remarkable thing if you look at a chart is this long -- this up like now we're producing more oil and gas than we ever have and we're actually exporting -- its higher than ever -- now, of course, we all know as george mitchell did not at the time that fracking comes along with its own environmental cost. and a lot it has to do with methane gases escaped from well withs. mitchell warned that this -- industry needs to be intensely regulated but it is not. comes the crash, of course, and in january of '16 oil was under $30 a barrel than houston alone lost 70,000 energy related jobs. but something didn't happen. the texas economy did not crash. as it had always done whenever oil prices crashed in the past.

it had become a much more diverse state economically which accounts for this -- amazing growth that we're seeing now. now, texas is often compared with california. in fact, it works both ways. you -- if fascinating to live in a country that had two dynamic but opposing models -- our governor greg abbott is constantly warning about the dangers of californiaization -- the -- he's in austin where i live he sees as a fungus of california that's destroying texas way of life, and the examples he sites are plastic bag bans and -- a burdensome tree ordinance is lately plastic straws that have been banned. these were all no doubt serious threat to our democracy. but this whole idea that california is the enemy is --

is taking route and i'm in a banding, and our drummer has a sticker on his kit that says -- stop california of texas music. i have no idea are. i don't know what it means. [laughter] but it's in his mind that texas music is under attack. now, the gross dmes peck product of texas one point six trillion if this were a country it would be 10th largest economy in the world ahead of canada. now, california has 40% more people and is gdp is 2.6 trillion dollars about the same as the united kingdom. but texas has been closing the gap. exports from texas nearly outrank those of california and new york combined right now. and texas already outranked california in the export of technology. from 2000 to 2016 job growth in

dallas and houston grew 31% three times the rate in los angeles. and in austin that's out post of liberalism it is 50% during the same period of time. take that governor -- [laughter] 2017, the fourth quarter growth in texas grew 5.4% there wasn't a single other state in the entire country that was above four xepght for idaho. they must have been a run on potatoes but i don't know california grew at 3.2% during that same time now these are two states. they are so alike and yet so different. they're both a majority/minority. prefiguring the country that america will some day be. they're kind of mirror images california is a entirely democratic state that is state

level. and texas has an elected a democrat to state office since 19 94 more than 20 yearses and couldn't have been more different and yet when i was a young man about when i was your age, texas was blue and california was red. texas produced lyndon johnson and california produced ronald reagan and the modern conservative revolution so these things are are constantly in flux. but the ways in which california and texas revolve kind of like the double helix or something reinvolve around each other always opposing in a kind of dynamic conversation. it naturally brings up the question -- and i've been asked this million times. you know, will texas turn blue? or even purple -- and the answer is yes. it will.

it when is only the question. the growth is in the cities -- even at suburbs which have been so -- so strong holds for republican party. new immigrants are coming and with different all of this growth brings in people who aren't a part of the texas political culture. and they have their own history it is -- in -- , in fact, working the opposite way, was my family. we moved to texas in -- 1956. my dad was a returning war veteran. and like many people who had fought under general eisenhower he an eisenhower republican so he moved to -- moved to abilene and then to dallas. because of the jobs -- people don't move to texas because of the scenery. but -- [laughter]

it's a great job producer and it offered my father as his offer millions of other people a chance to succeed a chance to -- become the kind of person he always wanted to be. but he was an eisenhower republican and it was dallas, the city we moved to that became the first city in -- in texas to elect a republican congressman. the first since reconstruction after the civil war. so i remember the turn -- now, texas is already far more liberal or progressive than our lengted representatives would lead you to believe that demography and the politics are at odds with each other. there was a figure and people who really count in politics is the primary voters in the republican party.

up until recently and may change but we'll see -- it is been republican votesser that has determined the -- outcome of the election now wendy davis who was a -- previous candidate for governor against greg abbott who was crushed she -- he beat her by 20 points. she made the observation that texas is not a red state it's a note nonvoting blue state. and that she's absolutely right about it. texas has been always at the very bottom or near the bottom. in voter turnout, now, why is that? people often blame the hispanics in texas for note voting and it has true that they -- tend not to. but why would that be true? well in my opinion -- i mean where in california they do tend to turn out --

because there's never been a who spoke to theired need especially december enfranchise and never a figure who spoke in language they understood. now it is going to be an interesting test this november. a very interesting test between rafael cruz who is hispanic but born in canada, in fact, no texan can forget -- [laughter] who angled his name to ted and speaks in spanish -- and -- robert francis who since childhood has been known by the the spanish diminutive beto who speaks very fluent spanish and has been in every single one of the texas's 254 counties including all of that border u area where with he speak to people in spanish.

whether -- texas is red or blue or purple, the decisions we make in texas are going to determine the future of america. right now, 10% of all school children in america are texans. but texas spends 2500 dollars less than national average per student. it's 49th out of 50 not 50th but it's a rich state it shameful. the nations report card just -- pointed out that in the 4th grade texans texas school children are 45th in the nation in achievement. children are future it seems pathetic to have to point that out. but the legislature has been cutting become on its contribution to public education as a war on public schools. in a state that's projected to double in 30 years, you know, the challenge is infrastructure.

overwhelming and yet we're not nearly beginning to meet that challenge. i'm thinking especially of our coastal area just a year ago this week -- you know, harvey hit, and i was in houston right after that, and it's a question about the survival not only of our coastal city, but the oil refineries in storage tanks and ports that are so essential not just to the texas economy but to the american economy. when we're led by climate change skeptics, this place is state i think in a certain peril. now i think texas is a wonderful place. it's bold, it is created. it seems creative to have a mandate to lead. and as texans we need to make sure we're up to the challenge to do less i think would be -- untexan. i'll be happy to take your questions. [applause]

thanks for your remarks i know you didn't go to school here but since you live in austin i wanted to ask if you have any comments about today's texas yanked football game. [laughter] >> well we were on a plane with a lot of them. so i'm unfortunately i was not watching the game. i actually -- you know, i came my wife and i came yesterday and went over to library of congress, and i looked out and there were thousands of people, and they were waiting to see, about say good-bye to john mccain. and really, really touching to me so we watched the funeral this afternoon it was a very, very moving one it could be -- who knows -- a small turn of the screw in improving our democracy. >> thank you. >> would you be kind enough to share with us your prediction of

the outcome of the cruise o'contest this november and please give us a date which texas will become purple age and date that it will become blue -- [laughter] >> no, i can make up a figure about, you know, the odds and because i still think that it's -- it's a climb for betto not only is he a democrat. he's from el paso for whatever reason we have never lengted anybody from el paso to statewide office i don't know what it is about that place, but i -- i met him only one time it was at the a fox station in dallas, and i i was promoting my book seven in the morning and we were in hair and makeup, and -- he has a jiminy stewart quality but he's on first so we walk into the studio and anchor comes

over, and -- i don't know if beto had said anything, but anchor says -- well you really handsome. and you're kind of tall, aren't you? and you've got that charisma thing going -- [laughter] i thought maybe i'm underestimating this guy. this is a fox station in dallas. i, you know, i think it's, you know, people would say that he had no chance and then i think -- right now you -- he's within single digits. there's he doesn't the have any support on the ticket and that's a problem. so you know, i would say 60/40 but now thinking 54/40 it is just a guess. the day if he elects -- if he's elected texas is purple. you know, you can start -- you can mark that down on your calendar. >> how about the date when it becomes blue. >> i can't go that far.

[laughter] my crystal ball is all clouded. >> mr. wright i grew up -- for familiar with that history you gave. >> yeah. >> so this book -- did it come about after having -- after you wrote your long article last summer. did that, was that like the genesis to then deepen that article and then write this book? >> yeah, i -- you know i write for new yorker and i -- my editor david asked me in, he said, larry i want you to explain texas. and because it is a little mysterious to people up there why i live in texas web and i reminded him i get paid by the word. [laughter] as a very big question you asked, and so i started writing i couldn't stop and i had vowed i used to work for texas monthly i thought i'll never write about texas again. i don't to be a regional writer.

and but i couldn't. i couldn't stop. so the book came out of that. yes. >> thank you for being here i love the book. i grew up in but my brother so i'm of texas -- my question is, i mean i guess you answered it. but when you were writing this was the audience you the in mind sort of everyone else or was it people in texas or a mix and how did that shape -- your reporting in the way that you wrote the book? >> that's an interesting question. i -- part of it, i don't ever really write for an audience. i kind of write to try to -- i want to write the book i would like to read about something, and the -- in this case, i had -- i know instinctively when people think about texas sometimes it has been stated very -- much in my face, but i wanted to address those things. but also i think --

you know, i wrote years ago i wrote a memoir about growing up during kennedy assassination and one with of the things that struck me was texas has rather impoverished literary are archive, and they're just -- wasn't very much said about what it was like to be from texas. or from dallas at that time, and -- your life is so enriched when you know you say is you grow up in paris or bookland even you have all of this literature about it, and it helps you understand the culture you live in. so part of my goal is to enlarge that archive, and also i -- i just had a really, a lot of fun doing this so i -- and it helped me understand the place i live in and myself better -- >> thank you. >> hi -- i have a question about about your previous book, the looming tower. this is a book that outlines --

a bunch of you know extremists who were fighting through soviets in 80s and turn to americans and -- 90s that is one thing to get a full grasp on is how these guys could suddenly in the late 80s or 90s become so hostile aggressive against the country that for a long time had been, you know, providing them article, helping them achieve a political goal. could you speak to that some, please? ...

>> but one the so it's will note there is no geopolitical reason we left the country into chaos and turned into civil war and ag hide. i don't think they would have paid any attention to that really if not for 911. speaking earlier caliban was known on the radar but 911 changed all that because they were hosting and participating with the war on america but because they created a sanctuary to make it possible for al qaeda to train its soldiers but then they fail to take that opportunity so the

hammer came down. now the longest running we have ever been in. i wish i had a better answer for you. you met my first exposure to texas i was six years old. people from my generation will understand. he talked about texas and california but that is also the way they approach race and higher education can you comment about that? where california they cannot use that as a consideration or the uc system? >> i thought the university of texas had the ingenious idea

how to handle admissions. they decided to admit the top 10% of all public school students who applied. the assumption was that the schools themselves were also segregated so there would be a large number of minority students coming out of the minority schools. and it did not work. the truth is the minority population that african-american population is very, very small and the hispanic population has increased but it hasn't not been effective. both of these school systems are circumscribed by law and it is difficult to entice or recruit minority students into

that system. i'm not sure exactly how we go about fixing this because the court is fighting this and the rules are not clear. >> so my question about the texas economy if it continues to grow that the rate that it has for the jobs in the past i am just wondering in your view how much of the state's economic growth is too low tax or low regulation policies to define texas approach frankly just the good luck of having oil and natural gas in the ground? tack on -- texas would not be texas without the oil. but i do think people migrated to texas they see it as a freebie.

and most industries are not social welfare organizations they don't care about those consequences of behavior and texas is still very stingy with it social net if you subtract 20 from public schools which is the primary obligation because you are feeling your children are not providing children with your workers of the future it is a conundrum. texas can afford to be more generous and farsighted. there could be some trauma left over and it was never rich the way people think of it as being rich there are more millionaires per capita, certainly in connecticut but

south dakota i think? someplace you would think really? when good times are in texas the oversize dollars for sale in the airport so you know the oil is flowing. but it never really flows down to the people but that doesn't mean there was not money gushing into the state. but also in our state government with the liberals with an $8 million surplus. it was a $6 billion surplus with an 8 million-dollar deficit. we are the last speakers right? nobody else? then i will take your

questions. >> comparing texas and california song wondering what they think of new yorkers or floridians in contrast to california? >> it is equally crazy in florida. [laughter] there is that tolerance and we are seen as the sunshine state. and in the politics. and for a long time to see the embodiment we are fighting against.

our country wouldn't be the same if not for all of these different entities we managed to create. >> as a native washingtonian a few years my family really loved hearing about texas. i'm sad we won't have a reason to go back there anytime soon. then to feel maybe not a literary legacy for you. aside from your own, a novel or history or anything? for those who want to learn more about texas? >> my best friend in the best writer that texas ever produced as a novel called the gates of the alamo that is wonderful.

we just finished reading a manuscript. with the big wonderful thing in the world but his book is a big wonderful thing. >> texas use to be more blue overall. so is that older generation more progressive but the primary vote is determining the politics of the state for decades. i read a figure there are more

of them over the age of 65 under the age of 50 and that demarcation tells you a lot. that dinosaur era is moving into the past. and then that reactionary politics? people are tired of it. with the attack on public schools at the same time to have this argument then to margaret -- migrate from one to another that was a school discussion about public education. it is an avoidance of the responsibility and i'm hopeful

in the next session that begins to have a more simpleminded people if not i'm on the case. >> i spent ten years in houston i actually loved it as well as was there when actually elected a lesbian so there were also african americans. with the energy that is the wind energy to make yes. thank you for bringing that up. texas derives more power from wind than any other state. currently 15% of power power in texas comes from the wind.

solar is coming along. not as quickly. i don't know why. we have plenty of sun. but there is one conservative town which is georgetown. and dallas and some other places. and had to choose that that energy at night is free. free. the wind blows more at night and they have to unload it. it is hard to beat free with pricing.